Zoologist - 1896 Author:Edward Newman Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: burying them is there detailed; and the quotation from Robinson's ' Natural History of Westmorland and Cumberland,' 1709, is there given, having been kindly comm... more »unicated to me for that purpose by the editor.— 0. Pickabd Cambridge (Bloxworth Rectory, Dorset). The Dispersal of Acorns by Books.—In Mrs. Hugh Blackburn's ' Sketches of Birds from Moidart,' of which a review is given in this number, the following observations ou the habits of Rooks are of interest in connection with what has already been noted by other observers. Mrs. Blackburn says :—" The Rooks did not build here when we first came (in 1856), but only flew across the fen from Armadale on predatory excursions. At harvest-time they would carry off potatoes and hide them, sometimes forgetting where they were buried, and leaving them to come up in unexpected places the following spring. They also transplanted acorns we had sown, sometimes replacing them in a more favourable spot." The Dispersal of Acorns by Rooks.—Referring to Mr. Clement Reid's observations under this heading in the last number of ' The Zoologist,' I may state that I once found a young oak-tree in a sheltered ravine amongst sea-cliffs on the northern coast of Hoy, Orkney. The tree was a little over six feet in height, and was growing luxuriantly amongst beds of primroses and ferns. A few Rock Doves bred near the place, and I concluded that an acorn had been brought by one of these birds ; but where from ? Unless it had been picked up on the sea-shore, it must have been carried a long way indeed. It could hardly have been brought by man, as the place was very remote, as well as difficult of access. Rooks occasionally crossed the Pentland Firth, and one of these birds might have conveyed the seed; but in any case the fact is interesting, and perhaps w...« less